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Friday, 8 August 2014

'Born Digital' Swipe Festival

Born Digital

This is a topic which has really gotten me thinking in the
past few days. As I sit here typing on my laptop, listening to Arctic Monkeys
(accessed on Spotify) with the hum of the radio distantly humming through the
house and flicking through my Facebook Newsfeed on my smartphone, I realise how
much technology has affected the lives of millions on this planet, in
particular in the past decade or so called ‘The Digital Age’.

I can still recall when we got our first ‘House Computer’ in
my house for Christmas when I was around eight years old, nearly a decade ago.

At the time Wi-Fi didn’t exist so we had to use the dial-up connection, which
looking back on now was quite horrific and worked at a pain-staking slow rate. However when
you’re eight years old playing games on the computer (Pinball had my heart)
attempting to become the latest Picasso on Microsoft Paint and worrying about
what a ‘search engine’ is, minor things like a slow Internet connection don’t
really matter. Did I mention I once thought Google was a virus on our computer?

When we first switched on the computer and it made the
distinct Windows XP sound, I ran out of the room fearing for my life, thinking
it was a virus. Literally everything I’d ever read and heard about the Internet
was that, ‘’you don’t click on the ads, they’re a virus,’’ ‘’don’t go on that
website, it’s a virus, ‘’ and so forth.
I believed that practically everything was a virus! I think as the
Internet was relatively new (my school had recently gotten a computer room with
computers that had Microsoft XP, huge celebrations!) there was a lot of
scaremongering about ‘The World Wide Web’ and how every link you click COULD be
a virus and destroy your computer.

However my attitude to the Internet soon changed and I began
to watch videos on YouTube to pass the time, as I wasn’t allowed on Bebo or Myspace
which I thought was the greatest tragedy known to man. I remember a year or so
later setting up my own YouTube channel (which no longer exists thankfully) so
I could actually ‘favourite’ and comment on videos! I was a huge Rihanna fan
back then aged 10, ‘Umbrella’ had been released that summer so I ran to buy her
album in CD form not on iTunes, a relatively new phenomenon at that stage. (But
that could have been a virus too!)

Another leap into technology and the digital world was when
I was given my first mobile phone for my tenth birthday. When I look back, I
think it’s an incredibly young age to have a phone, however being the youngest
child I can imagine I used a huge amount of ‘pester power’ to get the phone and
other electrical items during the years such as the PlayStation 2 (in pink of
course) a Nintendo Wii and other electrical items throughout my childhood.

I can still recall when, at thirteen and a half, I set up a
Facebook account. The ‘thirteen-and-a-half’ was a big deal for me, as I was a
whopping six months over the age you had to be when joining the website, unlike
many of my peers. As I’m writing this,
I’m scrolling through my Timeline from 2010/11/12 and can honestly admit it’s
possibly the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen. Despite thinking I was ‘cool’ for being on
Facebook, most of the status’ I posted were littered with poor grammar, ‘’txt
talk,’’ and lots more embarrassing and unspeakable things. ‘’Like for a rate
out of ten’’ is something that features highly, along with ‘’Like for a H’O’’
An Honest Opinion, which is making me shudder just from thinking of it.

In a whirlwind of the past four/five years, I’ve joined
various websites in this ‘Digital Era’ starting with Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube (again!) and my two latest favourites,
Tumblr and BlogSpot. My biggest leap into the Digital world so far has
definitely been by setting up my blog ‘The Random Life of Aveen’ in March 2013
following a school trip to London.

August 2014 and my blog has nearly 30,000 page views along
with nominations in ‘The Blog Awards Ireland’. For a person who once thought
that the search engine Google was a virus and could rob my parent’s credit
cards and details (even without buying anything on the Internet, but viruses
were clever and could do anything you know) I think that this is definitely a
big achievement in the time of all things digital.

I don’t really think I personally was ‘Born Digital’ I
genuinely think that I’m a 90’s kid as I was born in 1996. It was only in my
‘later’ years that technology began to affect me and my everyday life, unlike
people who are just two years or so younger than me. I slowly but surely began to embrace the
Digital Age as any young, enthusiastic child would and now I’m an absolute
Internet and technology addict.

However it’s when I
see my cousins who are all younger than eight years old, I genuinely believe
that they are ‘Born Digital.’ When your four year old cousin can use an iPad to
take selfies, play games and browse the Internet but can’t read or write as
they haven’t started primary school, I believe that that is being Born Digital.
At age four I had a baby Annabell, which only said one sound and occasionally
made slurping noises when you fed it.

I may have been born a few years too early to be ‘Born
Digital’ however I still believe I’ve experienced a huge technological advance
in my lifetime and a definite relaxation on the Internet, viruses aren’t a life
or death situation as advertised when I was young, they’re just extremely
irritating! I’ve a cousin aged eight who uploads to YouTube about Minecraft, at
that age I was playing Pinball on the house computer, not on a fancy iPad or
using an iPhone. (The iPhone was released
three years later when I was eleven or so) But as I sit here tapping away,
sending Snapchat’s, I realise how different my life as an eight year old nearly
ten years ago in 2004 is to the typical eight year old, ‘Born Digital’ in 2014.

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About Aveen

I'm Aveen, Irish and a B. Ed student in Mary I. I write about my life and all the tales that accompany me. Describing dramatic anecdotes and having a penchant for quotes and notebooks are my favourite things. My Email is aveepopk@gmail.com for any further enquiries. I don't really write here any more but feel free to read about my escapades from other days gone by.